It seemed alright to me too, 50 goals and 200 PIM his draft year, you figured there was something there. I didn’t follow the draft that closely so I didn’t really have an opinion until five or six years later, from then on I’ve been in a state of righteous outrage over that blunder.

So Weber signs an offer sheet with Philadelphia, one specifically designed to get him out of Nashville, and now that Nashville has matched Weber and his agent are going to ask Nashville to add a no-trade clause to that contract?!

If I’m Poile I say go screw yourself, and trade him to the highest bidder in a year from now. Hopefully the highest bidder are the Islanders or the Blue Jackets.

He signed the offer sheet with full knowledge that Nashville could (and even stated they would) match. Yes, he signed the offer and kinda forced Poile’s hand, but he’s hardly the villain some are painting him.

It’s reported that Weber’s agent is asking for special conditions regarding a NTC with Nashville.
According to the CBA, Article 10.3, sub (b),
“such additional terms as may be agreed upon between the Restricted Free Agent and the Prior Club (being Nashville)”.

So even after Nashville jumps hoops to equal Philly’s offer, Nash and his agent are imposing extra conditions.
I wonder if that clause will be removed from the next CBA?

Quite right. Shea Weber miscalculated. He put the Preds in a corner and tried to force the issue, tried to engineer a way to get a great contract and land in a desirable market. He rolled the dice, knowing there was a significant risk that Nashville would match, and that there might be this awkward renewal of vows.

If Mr. Weber and his agents had wanted to dictate these terms, all they had to do was play out the year and next summer test the free agent market, or, if they feared that UFA might not be in the cards for him with the new CBA, that he might have to wait out another couple of seasons, he could have worked cooperatively with the Preds, instead of putting a shotgun to their head.

So now the Predators have him under contract for fourteen years, they don’t need to sweeten the deal or add throw-ins or restrict their own options in any way. Shea Weber didn’t exactly show a lot of loyalty to them, nor did Ryan Suter, so they shouldn’t bend over backward to get these guys to ‘like’ them. In any case, that crazy frontloading of the contract should serve as a de facto no trade clause for another five years or so.

Teams usually try to divorce the actual contract negotiations from the hockey operations side, so that the business side doesn’t bleed into the hockey side. This will be difficult if not impossible in this case. So now Barry Trotz has to take over from David Poile and go into overdrive to make sure Mr. Weber’s in the right frame of mind when he attends camp, but aside from that the Preds’ job is done.

As Bugs Bunny once said to the Martian: “You are hardly in a position to enforce your wishes.”

The favour that the Flyers did for the Predators is that they set the number it would take to get a signature on a contract. Now the Preds have that signature. The contract is signed, they don’t need to add anything to it.

One of the cool things about the offer sheet is that it acts like a shotgun clause and ends the messing around. There’s a take it or leave it function to it. Once the player signs, he’s committed to playing for one of two teams at the price he agreed to. A further cool thing is that things like NMC’s and NTC’s and other non-monetary clauses aren’t transferable to the current team if it matches. So the Predators get Shea Weber with no strings attached.

Whether the Predators would be wise to acquiesce to his demands now is a good question. My gut feeling right now would be to tell him to gear up and just play hockey, but you don’t want an unhappy captain or superstar. I’d tell his agent let’s take a year or at least a few months to cool off, then quietly allow him in the future to submit a small list of teams he doesn’t want to play for. Heck, David Poile could just go ahead and fill it in for him, tell him “You’re not going to be traded to the Islanders, the Coyotes, the Oilers, the Leafs, and the Canadiens. Do you want one or two more?”

What happens to Weber’s contract if the Predators decide to trade him in, say, four years? They owe him $13 million now and $13 million on July 1 of each of the next three years. His salary apart from those bonuses is only $1 million per year. If he is traded, do the Predators recoup any of the bonus money? If not, I guess he won’t be traded.

He’s a Pred for life- now their management team can get back to the business of building the team around Weber, Rinne, and all the good D they have as well. Players like Klein.
And that’s how you protect your assets. And tell Weber’s agent to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Another in a long line of revealing profiles of megalomaniac James Dolan, owner of MSG, the Knicks, and the Rangers as an afterthought.

For those of you who think the players ‘go too far’ and shouldn’t mind ‘taking a little less’, this is the guy who this would benefit if the NHLPA caved in on the outrageous owner demands. Not the fans who will see lower ticket prices, or fewer ads on their game broadcast, or a guarantee that there will never be sponsors on NHL jerseys. No. James Dolan will use that money to helicopter his co-opted bandmates to rehearsal.

I could not disagree more.
Some people are hugely successful in life. I applaud their success.
Ask the PLAYERS on his teams if they like getting paid huge money.
The players love playing for rich owners. The richer the better.

ed, first read the article and then tell me about “hugely successful in life.”

Here a segment:

“Legacy kids can succeed or fail as sports owners like anyone else, but one thing sets them apart: They inherited their opportunity with, in some case, no real credentials at all. Let’s say I retired in 20 years and turned this column over to my son, but he couldn’t write and didn’t know anything about sports. You would think this was weird. You would make fun of him. You would say, “Why the hell would ESPN employ Simmons’s son, isn’t this the strangest thing ever?” In the business world, it’s par for the course. It happens all the time. As the old saying goes, James Dolan was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.”

Hopefully, if they will be judged by what they accomplish, observed through the prism of the incredible privileges that are bestowed on them by having two bright uber-successful people as their loving parents, and the material advantages they enjoy.

So if they turn out like Chelsea Clinton, bravo. The Bush twins, meh. Paris Hilton or Paulina Gretzky, (facepalm).

And if you read the article on James Dolan, you’ll agree with me that he deserves a boot to the head. Read the article ed. Don’t dismiss the points Bill Simmons makes because you and I habitually disagree on the current CBA negotiations.

I don’t judge people by the amount of money they have.

Neither does Bill Simmons in the article I linked to. He makes a case that privileged kids can take three broad directions in life. Again, read the article. The point isn’t that James Dolan has too much money, it’s that he’s a buffoon who tortures Knicks and Rangers fans through his enthusiastic incompetence, yet still profits from it.

I try to judge people on their behaviours as well. In the case of Geoff Molson, I was modestly optimistic when he was announced as the principal in a group of investors to purchase the Canadiens from George Gillett, who I always feared was a carpetbagger but ended up being a good owner. The Molson family has been an enlightened owner of the Canadiens in the past, especially when compared to other Original Six owners (source: “Net Worth”). I then was pleasantly impressed by an interview I saw with him on RDS. He hasn’t stopped impressing me since then. I don’t hate him for being marginally more well-off than I am. He seems to be a decent guy who has used the advantages he was provided with quite well.

On the other hand ed, do you admire any amoral robber baron who is lionized as a champion of free industry just because he is wealthy?

How much does the man give to charity, if he is wealthy?

That is the red herring of the current debate on wealth accumulation, that and the ‘job creator’ myth.

Look, if billionaires want to host vernissages and cocktail parties at the opera, and have wings of children’s hospitals named after them, that’s fine with me. Just as long as they pay a reasonable amount of taxes first. It would be better if they didn’t devastate whole communities in a rapacious quest for profit, and then dole out a meager fraction to build a park or something.

So yeah, pay your friggin’ taxes, don’t stockpile banknotes in Bermuda or Switzerland secret accounts, and then after that, I’ll think you’re a champ if you give still more to charity.

That, to me, is a more relevant way to judge a wealthy man.

No, that’s actually a completely irrelevant way of judging a wealthy man, seeing as you depart on a tangent at right angle to the subject at hand in the linked article which you failed to read, which is that James Dolan is a buffoon who runs the teams he owns like a fool, but still rakes in mountains of cash, and now wants to lock out the players to earn still more, instead of arriving at a better revenue sharing model whereby everyone could prosper.

He’s going to deprive me of hockey so that he can buy more ivory backscratchers and guitar picks for his atrocious band. That’s why I judge him harshly.

Inheritance is the status quo, so most don’t have a problem with it. Interestly though, Warren Buffett, among the richest in the world, does not believe in inheritance. He is giving his fortune to charity rather than leave it to his family. His grand-daughter had to work as a nanny for a while. He is more than happy to pay for their education, but that’s it. I wonder how society would change if all inheritances worked this way?

ed, if you want to be a shill for megalomaniac sports team orders, go nuts buddy.

I actually agree that a crazy rich guy can be a good owner (eg better than a pension fund) because he actually wants to win and will likely spend for that ego gratification.

Just don’t pretend that somehow something needs to change about the economics of the game to make rich owners richer.

Don’t pretend that it is the greedy players who get too much money. They are who we pay to see. Yes it is too much, but cutting their pay will not make the game better or tickets cheaper but just put money in owners’ pockets.

And while many owners may have been great entrepreneurial successes in life to be in a position to afford to buy a team, the NHL is a closed oligopoly that above all else protects the expansion of franchise value. It is not some type of open capitalist competition where anyone can start their own team and compete. The Ayn Rand BS just don’t apply.

If that were the only point you were making I would not disagree I don’t think either of us believes that crazy rich guys necessarily make better owners, just that their wealth and ego can motivate them to do things that may not be great bottom line business decisions but could be good for fans.

Dolan is certainly not among that crowd. He is not good. He did not ear his wealth, he inherited it. I have no problem with someone inheriting wealth, it just doesn’t mean that they earned it.

As to the “only” point you are trying to make

I look at owners and respect them for who they are.
Like the many criminals? John Rigas, Boots Del Biaggio, John Spano, Henry Samueli just to name a few?

You keep spreading this meassage that owners deserve whatever they can squeeze out based on some misplaced bootlicking approach at the same time that you think that the players should just give the owenrs whatever they want, by divine right.

You have been making the argument. It is ludicrous and indefensible. At least own it.

When you think about it, they don’t have that much space left, especially if they plan on keeping their UFAs and RFAs.
I think there’s 4 total. Delzotto is in there, and there’s no way they’re letting him go. He was part of the no-trade pact to Columbus.
So you can be sure he’ll be making substantially more.

I would think the most likely fit for Doan is Philly. They just got burned on the Weber deal. And they can certainly afford him.
But it would be sweet to see him here. That’s for certain.

I don’t think it’s impossible for Montreal to land Shane. Think of it for a second. Montreal is not that bad of a place to play in. If MB is able to sell him the idea that we are a pretty good team and we will only gonna get better next year and a year after, he could come hear to play. And if it’s a maximum of 3 years, I say why not.

The Habs might be going after Doan pretty hard. Do you guys remember when he was drafted 7th overall one spot before the Habs picked Terry Ryan :(? I doubt he’ll sign here just because of his cousin but if we throw a short term deal with big money I’d be happy. Always been a Doan fan.

People maybe thinking Subban could be a target of the Flyers with an offer sheet but another possibly for Philly may be The Caps John Carlson who when Subban & Carlson sign will probably have very similar contracts……

It’s the 2nd richest team in hockey. Send the guys to Hamilton already, and sign a superstar. The Rangers can send down Redden, and sign Gaborik. Then add Nash … c’mon. We are the 2nd richest team in hockey. Why can’t we do these things?

P.K. would have to accept an offer sheet from Philly. I think he likes it here as there hasn’t been any rumours of him signing offer sheets to date. I also really doubt that philly would be going with Weber money to sign P.K just yet.

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Well, he’s kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace “accidentally” with “repeatedly” and replace “dog” with “son.”

“It’s sad when our rookies have no NHL experience before they jump up to the NHL.” – nunacanadien

Yeah considering they bring in 25 million a year in ticket revenue, and will owe one player 26 million by next July 1st regardless of whether there is a lock out or not. I bet this is one team that will be pushing hard for labor peace.

Please tell me which one of these is a number #1 center on your team? Outside of Carter who barely played last season, there is not a #1 center in the whole group.

Nash has managed to score 30 or more goals 7 of the last 8 seasons in his career except one when he scored 27.

And he never played with a legit #1 center. Never.
Nash is a winger.
You know very well because you are a very knowledgeable hockey guy that a winger is at the mercy of the centers with whom he plays.
Yet Nash has overcome a huge obstacle and still become one of the most prolific goal scorers in the game.
over rated??
No chance.
Ask the experts what they think of Nash. Ask the GM’s of the NHL what they think of Nash. Ask everyone in hockey.
I went through this with Jordan Staal for 2 years on this site.
Staal is over rated, Staal is nothing special.
I don’t why some players are just overlooked by you guys but you need to look around at the hockey gurus who are in total disagreement with every word you guys say about Nash and Staal.
Did you hear how Staal was described during the draft when he was traded?/
By Bob Mckenzie, and everyone else who has been following his career.
Any way, I don’t doubt your hockey knowledge.
You are a very valuable poster here and I appreciate your input.
just totally and completely disagree about those two great players.

jordan staal is one of the great young players in the game, one of the best 2 way centers and certainly will be a top player in the NHL for at least the next 10 years

rick nash is an elite goal scorer, one of the best scorers in the last 7 or 8 years in all of hockey, and capable of 40+ goals if he gets to play with a true #1 center
that’s what the experts say.
until we become experts I think we should look long and hard at those who have spent the last 20, 30 years in and around the NHL game

Yeah Eddie, whassup with the whole double-trible-im-too-sexy-for-this-space-line-spacing? Chill on the return botton.
Nash aint nô superstar – hé can carry himself, but not the team. In a cap va goal, id pick Coal over Nash any day. Id use the cap to add Doan or Ryan if possible…

I don’t think he ever participated in the Olympics either, but I can’t think of, or find anyone else who fits the bill.
I went through the trophy listing, and ….nope. Nobody.
Unless it’s a trophy which has changed names.
And no one player has ever done it in one year.
So Burley is just trying to tick me off!!!!!
AND IT’S WORKING!!!!

Well, I’m trying to Google it, and all I can find is that Kronwall, Samuelsson and Zetterberg needed the least amount of time to accomplish the feat, and all three did it for the Sweedes, and it took 2 years. So what am I missing?
OK I GIVE UP!!!

I think the Habs should bring AK back for a 3rd line role who could fill in on the 2nd (roster space notwithstanding). I’m hearing a lot of how AK is inconsistent but I would argue that any 20-25 goal scorer by nature is inconsistent over an 82 game schedule. Also keeping in mind that goal scorers usually score in bunches. What he brings however is physical play, and he can hold his own on defensive assignments. He also played very well on a line with Moen and Eller last year.

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Well, he’s kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace “accidentally” with “repeatedly” and replace “dog” with “son.”

“It’s sad when our rookies have no NHL experience before they jump up to the NHL.” – nunacanadien

We have plenty of 3rd line players. We need another 30 goal scorer, not a underacheiving 3rd liner who won’t get 15 goals with 3rd line minutes.
I think we got the top 2 lines set, but Bourque is a question mark.
Maxpac, DD, Cole
Gio, Pleks, Bourque
Eller, Gomez, Armstrong
Moen, White, Prust

So we got to look at an upgrade before the trade deadline based on how the players are performing.

Right now the only moves we should be making is to get a 30 or more goal scorer and make an upgrade.

Getting a 30 goal scorer now via trade is suicide for the Habs in terms of giving up future prospects and picks. Switch out Gomez to Hamilton and Make Eller 3rd line center, Bring Moen up to 3rd line and Armstrong to 4th. Now you have 3 balanced scoring lines.

_______________________________________________________
Well, he’s kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace “accidentally” with “repeatedly” and replace “dog” with “son.”

“It’s sad when our rookies have no NHL experience before they jump up to the NHL.” – nunacanadien

It certainly makes sense to give it a shot for another year, at a low salary. Considering all the demands for another scorer everyone’s made, it wouldn’t be a bad decision to bring in Kostitsyn and(assuming MT is reasonable) put him back together with Moen and Eller, and keep them together if they succeed. You’d actually have some good depth in scoring that way.

Assuming our players all overachieve, or have excellent seasons, or whatever you want to call it, you’d have something like this:

I also liked him on Eller’s wing with Moen, but I’ll be surprised if we bring him back. I think he ends up in Pittsburgh for a bargain and lights it up on Sid’s wing. Then gets a big offer next year and underperforms.

_______________________________________________________
Well, he’s kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace “accidentally” with “repeatedly” and replace “dog” with “son.”

“It’s sad when our rookies have no NHL experience before they jump up to the NHL.” – nunacanadien